Pineapple Mushroom Tofu Surprise

Jessica says this is a triumph. When I bit into a king mushroom, I felt that I would never have to crave the savory texture and flavour of meat again.

Marinade:
Around a rounded tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
4 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup of cold-pressed sesame oil
3 tablespoons of organic soy sauce
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
Chopped cilantro (about 1/4 cup)

Mix above in an oven proof pan. Add sliced tofu, king mushrooms, oyster mushrooms. Layer slices of fresh pineapple on top, pour more marinade on top (can just mix up more sesame oil/soy sauce/rice vinegar if need be). Leave to marinate for a half hour and then put into oven for around 30 minutes.

Add chopped bok choi and stir in for another 10 minutes.

Pincage (there's a cedilla accent under the "c")

Okay. I discovered the magic of pincage through my favourite food writer in the world, Francis Lam of Salon.com in this article.

If you only had one condiment in your fridge and you were a vegan and wanted something to make your beans, greens and rice go boing! this is it. Francis gives the classic recipe in the article sited above. The first one or two times I made pincage, I tried to follow all the instructions but couldn't bring myself to a) use that much olive oil and b) stand at the stove that long. Yet. Having confessed fully to my tendency towards impatience despite years of practicing meditation, I will say that when you take the time to chop all those onions, carrots, celery stalks and whatever other vegetables you might want to add, you begin to *get* the Slow Food Movement. You begin to feel that you have JOINED THE RANKS of those who pay ritual thanks to the earth and to the things it grows which feed you through FINE gourmet cooking. You begin to pay your respects to the gift of life by cooking these vegetables in a way that will bring out the best of their flavours and that will bring out the best in the food it is eventually combined with. Pincage gives depth, richness and... the utterly mouthwatering savoury umami effect (see here what umami is). It adds an extra dimension to your food.

So, having said all that, I very rarely follow all the instructions. Perhaps my most radical departure is that I just DUMP EVERYTHING INTO A HOTPOT, TURN ON HIGH AND LEAVE IT FOR HOURS. There. No standing at the stove. I pay my respects while chopping the vegetables which gives me plenty of time to continue TINKERING with the basic onion/carrot/celery combo. I often add lots that Francis doesn't mention.

Today's pincage involves:

• half a celery root
• one onion
• 5 carrots
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1 parsley root
• 4 cloves of garlic

Chop the above into fine dice and place in slow cooker. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of sea salt and a teaspoon of whole green peppercorns. Stir, put on lid, turn slow cooker on high and leave the whole thing for a few hours (like 3-4)... then add tomato paste... leave for a few more hours. Be prepared to completely forget that you are cooking something until savoury fragrances begin to waft through the house. You will have forgotten and you will begin to wonder, what is that wonderful smell? Are the neighbours cooking something? Is there a new restaurant that opened nearby? And then you will remember, HEY, *I'm* making pincage!

Once pincage is done, you can add it to things like:

• cooked beans (I like them with beans like romano and white kidney that are often used in French or Italian cuisine... a bean that has sufficient mealy volume to soak up the glorious umami savoury goodness of the pincage... i.e. not so much adzuki bean but perhaps green lentil)
• plain rice with fresh parsley
• cooked soba noodles
• on top of cooked polenta
• spread on a baguette
• as a dip for natchoes!
• to squash based or carrot based soups that need some zing!
• (I haven't tried this yet but...) how about mixing in with some miso, add cooked red kidney beans plus perhaps some cooked couscous for instant minestrone???
• on top of couscous (of course)
• with quinoa (why not while we're at it?)

Pincage is great for Sunday/long weekend Monday afternoons and when you have a busy week ahead of you and you know you will be liable to come home hungry and depleted and not know what to cook. Once you have pincage, you have a gourmet meal at your disposal within minutes.